Dottie’s Journey Continues…

[TBigLug]

Hey everybody! Sorry for the absence, I’ve been super busy this summer. I wanted to drop in and share a story of mine and Dottie’s continuing journey together.

First off, let me start by saying I suffer from near paralyzing acrophobia (fear of heights). I know, weird right, guy’s 6’5 and he hates heights. Go figure.

One day I’m at work shoveling stalls (weekend job) and I look at my buddy Craig and say, “I’m gonna ride my horse today.” Bear in mind, I’ve been on a horse less than a dozen times in my life and not at all in the last 4 years since I broke my back.And I’ve always had my love and trusted mentor Heather by my side each time I rode.So, Craig convinces me everything will be fine and I should go for it. Fast forward 3 hours. Honey’s at home, grandpa and grandma are gone to a anniversary party and my uncle is three miles away at a farm we rent planting wheat. No one knows what I’m planning on doing but me and Craig. So I throw Dottie’s harness on and take her out to work her single on the stone boat for a while to warm her up (or warm myself up, not sure which). We make a couple laps around the field and she behaving spectacularly (as always). I drive her up next to the round bales (mounting block) and jump up and down on them to make sure she won’t spook with me being higher up than she is. No problem. Bare in mind, she’s only been ridden twice in her life, both times by Heather (legitimate professsional rider) and produced a buck or two during those endeavours. Jump off the bales, smoke a cigarette, try to decide what the hell I’m thinking. One more lap around the field. Line her up again. Jump up and down on the bales again. Now she’s looking at me and I can hear her thoughts, “I think he’s finally gone off the deep end… What is he doing? So, up on the bale I go. Standing there woth my hands on her back leaning on her to make sure she’s not going to run away. Ten minutes go by and I’m still stading there. I can think of 1,000 reasons NOT to do it. You know what, you gotta face your fears eventually. Make the sign of the cross and up I go…

SHE STANDS LIKE A DREAM. My heart, 1,000,000 beats per minute. Now, a new thought runs through my head. I’m up here BUT, there’s no one around, no one knows what I’m up to and the stone boat is still hooked behind her…. Hmmm…

So I call up Heather…

Me… “Hey baby.”
Her… “Hey honey, what’s going on?”
Me… “Well, in case this goes wrong, I just wanted to let someone know what I was trying to do…”
Her… “Oh God, what now?”

😀

So, I’m thinking, I’m up here might as well go for a trip. I ended up riding her for about a half hour and she did great. Since then I got to ride her in a saddle. One more thing my girl does great. I can’t wait to ride again.

There’s more to the story but that gets my point across. One more thing our amazing drafts can do.

[Carl Russell]

Great story. I can totally relate, having gone through similar times. It is so funny how it really comes down to how much we trust ourselves.

Good luck, Carl

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